"When was this?" Len demanded, his mouth still gaping wide open.
"Over the weekend," was Rin's sheepish reply. "We were on a date in the amusement park and he proposed to me in the Ferris Wheel."
"At the top?" Len said, his eyes narrowing.
When Rin nodded, Len leaned back on the sofa and groaned. "What is this cheesiness?"
"It isn't cheesy!" Rin protested.
"Nope, Len's right for once," Miku sighed. "Proposing on the top of a Ferris Wheel is such a cliché scene. I would hate to be proposed like that."
"Yep," Len drawled out, at the same time making a mental note to himself. No cheesy proposals to Miku. Not that he was going to propose any time soon. As much as he loved Miku, he wasn't ready for marriage or any of the fuss that came with it yet.
"You two should just shut up once in a while," Rin grumbled, crossing her arms across her chest. "It was a very sweet thing for him to do! You're just biased because both of you have this weird obsession with writing."
"Writing is not weird!" Miku protested. "It's fun!"
"I'm not calling writing weird," Rin sighed. "It's your obsession that's weird. Do you even do anything other than writing?"
"Of course," Len said with a huff. "I actually have a job at the library, remember?"
"And I have a full-time job taking care of Cookie!" Miku proudly declared, scooping Cookie off the floor and cuddling the kitty to her chest.
Rin just stared at her with raised eyebrows. "That's not helping your case, you know."
"Eh, whatever." Miku shrugged it off. She scratched Cookie behind its ears and leaned back on the couch, staring up at the ceiling. She sighed, "But seriously, I can't believe you're getting married!"
"Right?" Len agreed with a matching sigh. "I always thought there wouldn't be a guy stupid enough to want to marry Rin."
"Hey! That's not nice!" Rin exclaimed, hitting her brother on the head. Miku just laughed at the scene as she grabbed for another cookie, watching Len clutch his head in pain before shooting back some verbal retort. She probably should've been concerned about Len's well-being, but she was so used to seeing the Kagamine twins fight with each other that it had become more of a comedy to her than anything else.
"Anyways," Rin pouted, crossing her arms again as she returned to the rigid sitting position she had been in. "That's why I came over today, though I shouldn't have expected anything much from you two idiots."
"Aw, Rin, you know we're happy for you, " Miku cooed.
Len mumbled something in agreement, his tone still excessively grumpy. Rin shot him a glare and said, "You're still wondering how I could possibly be getting married, aren't you?"
"Not really?" Len defended weakly, turning to look out the window.
Rin simply shook her head and rolled her eyes. "The two of you really are hopeless," she sighed, reaching into the pocket of her sweatshirt. "I guess I should just throw away the wedding invitation I was going to give to you."
She pulled out a simply square card decorated with a gold and silver border and proceeded to get off the couch, heading towards the nearest trashcan before Len and Miku grabbed her.
"Okay, okay, we're sorry for teasing you!" Len said, dragging his sister back onto the couch.
"Yes, we're extremely sorry!" Miku added with a pleading look in her eyes. "Just please let us go to your wedding!"
Rin stared at the two of them, a look of disbelief on her face as sparkles appeared in both Len and Miku's eyes. If there was something to two of them were good at, it was using puppy eyes to get what they wanted, and a double dose was more than enough to make anyone give in to their demands.
"Seriously," Rin sighed, handing the invitation to them. "What's with your love for weddings?"
"It's not our fault we've never been to one," Len said as he studied the invitation card in his hands, his eyes twinkling with excitement. "Plus, the best way to write a scene is to have experienced it firsthand, so I want to see what a wedding is like."
"I want to eat the food there!" Miku proudly declared, looking over Len's shoulder at the invitation. "Isn't the food at weddings supposed to be super good?"
As the two of them continued to ramble on, Rin cut in accusingly, "Are neither of you even concerned that this is my wedding?"
Len and Miku paused in their conversation, turning to stare at Rin for a brief moment.
"Well, yeah, we know that," Miku said, "but—"
"We can't talk about what we're going to do for you in front of you, can we?" Len finished, the two of them turning their attention to the back of the card that was dotted with gold glitter.
Staring at the two of them for a while, Rin let out a huff and got off the sofa, her hands in her pockets. "Fine, since you're both so interested in staring at the invitation card, I'll let you two be then," Rin sighed, heading off towards the door. "That's really all I came here to talk to you guys about."
"Oh, then, I'll walk you to the bus stop," Len hastily said, going after his sister after grabbing his coat. He was starting to feel a little bad for paying his sister so little attention despite the good news she'd just delivered, so as Rin's twin and family, Len supposed it was up to him to see if Rin had wanted to talk about anything else.
He glanced over at Miku, who returned his look with a knowing wink. It hadn't taken much to come up with a fitting gift for Rin and her fiancé even without directly communicating with each other, but with Rin there, not only would they not have been able to discuss their plan, they wouldn't have been able to get her gift either. And of course, with short-term memories like Len and Miku's, putting off things was never a good idea, so that gift had to be bought now. Immediately. Before both of them forgot what it was.
After the Kagamine twins left the apartment, Miku let out a long sigh, lazily picking herself off the couch and sitting down in front of the laptop. As she browsed the internet, searching for the best deal on the gift they were getting Rin, she still found herself in a state of disbelief.
Rin was getting married? For real?
Rin had been the last person Miku expected to get married first of all the friends she knew. Not to mention she was getting married to that person, of all the guys Rin hung out with. Miku just shook her head in defeat again as she clicked the item she wanted and paid for it. It was really a mystery as to what the world could do to people.
Staring at the numbers on the screen in front of her, the price of the bill, the date of the gift's arrival, Miku was suddenly struck with an idea. Glancing over at the clock on the front door, Miku guessed she had about an hour or more before Len came back, considering all his tendencies to make a fuss over his sister and his general slowness when it came to walking. Without a moment to spare, she opened up a new document, thought for a moment, and began to type, a wide grin growing on her face.
We interrupt this wonderful Lenku drabble series to bring you a story about Rin and her lovely fiancé who is … who?
Once upon a time, there was a young girl named Rin.
Rin was a very quiet and serious girl. She rarely ever spoke to others and was often seen with her nose buried in the pages of a book, reading whenever she had free time. She didn't have many friends except for a little kitty her brother had given to her as a gift, leaving the young Rin quite alone everyday as everyone went to work.
For the most part, Rin didn't mind because she had her books to read and her kitty to take care of, allowing her to be content with her life snuggled up in the confines of her home, reading about people and adventures that she wished were real.
One day though, Rin found herself in a horrible situation as she woke up one day, her kitty sleeping on her chest and her books lined neatly on the bookshelves lining her walls.
There were no more books for her to read.
Normally the situation could be solved by a simple visit to the bookstore, but Rin had been there just yesterday, had gotten every last book she hadn't yet read from the store and finished reading them all before dinnertime. The next load of books wasn't due to come until sometime next week, leaving Rin with an entire week of nothing to do.
Defeated, Rin decided she might as well take the chance to go outside for a nice walk. With luck, she'd find something interesting to think about, something that could keep her mind off the fact that the next week was going to be devoid of new adventures and experiences to read about.
As Rin was walking by a small park, her kitty suddenly started tugging at the rim of her pants, dragging her through some bushes until she found herself in the empty park. She frowned and said, "What's wrong?"
The kitty nudged her some more, prompting her to scan the park for anything abnormal until her eyes fell upon a figure crumpled on the swings, his head hanging forward, his hands barely holding onto the chains holding up the swing he was sitting on.
Rin approached the boy carefully, not sure what to do. It didn't seem like the boy was conscious, but Rin being the quiet girl she was, she didn't know what she ought to do to help the boy. Ultimately, she chose the safest path and simply poked the boy and asked, "Are you okay?"
The boy began to stir, his fists reflexively clenching the swing chains tighter as he slowly lifted his head to look at Rin. He blinked slowly, his eyes focusing on Rin, a faint buzzing filling the air.
"I'm fine," the boy said, his voice high and squeaky in a constant monotone, almost unnatural. He paused for a moment before continuing, "Thank you."
"Huh? Oh, you don't need to thank me," Rin hastily said, plopping down on the swing next to the boy with her kitty in her lap.
The boy just tilted his head so his face was to her, eyes peering at Rin unblinkingly. "I'm afraid I must," the boy said. "My program says I must be polite to others."
"Program?" Rin repeated.
The boy nodded. "Yes, program."
Not sure what to make of what he was saying, Rin decided to ask a different question. "So what were you doing here?"
The boy took another moment to respond, the buzzing sound from before growing louder. "My master told me to go outside."
"Your master? Are you a servant?"
The boy shook his head. "No. My master is the human who created me. He told me I had to learn how to be more human."
Rin's brows furrowed together, even more confused. "Are you not human then?"
Again the boy shook his head and replied, "I am what you would call a robot. I think. Or perhaps you'd prefer the term 'android'?"
"Oh, uh, I'm sure robot is fine," Rin said, giving the boy a small smile. The boy was a robot? That was definitely interesting. She realized she hadn't introduced herself yet, so she said, "By the way, my name's Rin. What's yours?"
The boy introduced himself before falling silent again. Rin suddenly thought back to her depleted supply of books, the week devoid of entertainment that was bound to be waiting for her. An idea immediately popped into her head as she asked, "Hey, so if you're trying to learn how to be a human, do you mind if I hang out with you for the next week?"
"Hang out?" the boy repeated dully, the buzzing noise intensifying, a sound that Rin guessed was the sound of the boy's artificial brain going to work. "I'm sorry. I'm afraid the phrase 'hang out' isn't in my dictionary."
Rin couldn't help it. She let out a small giggle, lightly smacking the boy's shoulder. The boy simply stared back at Rin, a troubled expression on his face. "I'm sorry," he said again slowly, "did I do something wrong?"
"No, no!" Rin kept laughing, wiping a tear from her eyes. "You're just so … I don't know, innocent and oblivious that it's actually adorable! I mean, everyone knows hanging out means, you know, having fun together, socializing, that stuff."
"I see," the boy said without changing expression. As Rin finally began to calm down, the boy spoke up again. "Well, I'll remember that from now on."
"Good," Rin affirmed, unable to keep herself from smiling at the boy, who was actually quite handsome for someone who looked to be around her age. "So do you want to hang out together?"
Slowly, the corners of the robot's mouth began to curve upwards into a bright smile, as if the boy were emulating Rin's actions. He replied, "I would be happy to."
Rin thought she felt her heart skip a beat. She'd only offered to hang out with the robot-boy because honestly, there was nothing else to do, but somehow, seeing this radiant smile on the face of a robot moved something inside Rin. His smile, this first smile, was so beautiful Rin couldn't help but want to see what else he was capable of as he attempted to become human. His tears, his shouts, hi hopes and dreams, Rin found herself wanting to witness them all, but even more than that, she wanted to see more of his beautiful smile, wanted to see it forever and ever and ever.
A loud creaking noise interrupted Rin's star-struck state. She looked over at the robot again, her eyes widening in surprise as a portion of the boy's chest swung open, revealing his skin to be a thin sheet of metal hiding the intricate wiring inside as well as several square containers, many of them in places where organs would be inside the human body.
The boy caught Rin staring and looked away, his delicate fingers running through his hair like he was suddenly shy. He murmured in a low voice, "I'm sorry, I opened myself up without asking for your consent."
Rin straightened up, shaking off the shock she'd initially felt and cheerfully responded, "Hey, you don't need to apologize for anything. You can do whatever you want with your body. Besides, it looks cool!"
"Really?" The robot twisted his head, his eyes looking over at Rin carefully.
She nodded before pointing to one of the smaller boxes inside him. "What's this for?"
"This box contains an energy generator," the robot replied, seemingly having gotten over his initial shyness. "Its functions are similar to that of the human heart."
"And this?" Rin pointed to a larger box lower in his chest.
"This is what I had meant to show you," the robot replied, opening up the box, which immediately let out a few bouts of cold steam. "Instead of a stomach, it's like a refrigerator that can store food even though I don't eat. My master said humans like to share food with their friends, so I thought I could share some food with you."
The robot reached into his so-called stomach and handed Rin a small bag of cookies. Rin accepted them graciously, smiling at the cute cookie designs. She asked, "You made these yourself?"
The robot nodded. "My master thought I should know how to make food for others. And also, this is for the cat."
He held out a small bottle of milk for the kitty in Rin's lap, who purred contently at the sight of it. Rin had laugh at her kitty's eagerness, and, as if contagious the boy began to laugh too, a little choppy at first but soon much more real, much more genuine. That was the sound that stayed in Rin's mind even after they stopped laughing, even after Rin initiated a conversation with the robot-boy, even after the cookies and milk were gone, even after the sun had set and they'd returned to their own respective homes. For the first time in her life, Rin found herself excited about something other than the books she read, excited to go and meet the sweet robot-boy with his beautiful smile and charming laughter.
The next seven days were filled with so much fun and excitement that Rin would have wished the week would never end if not for the new supply of books she was still waiting on. She brought books for the robot to read so that he could get a better idea about the antics of humans. She talked with him about all kinds of things, school, people, philosophy, even the concept of love even though Rin barely understood the concept herself. In return, the robot-boy gave her cookies to eat and her kitty milk to drink. Day by day she felt happier when meeting up with the robot boy, but as for why, it would take a certain boy to make her understand just what he'd become to Rin.
As for the robot-boy himself, neither of them knew it but slowly the boy's 'heart' began to change. With her help through the books she brought for him to read, he learned to be sad when a character he liked died or suffered, to be angry at villains and sometimes even the heroes themselves. He discovered that he was a cynic, a hardcore realist who preferred facts over amorphous dreams, but even then, he discovered hope, the ability to dream and pursue and fight for a person's desire.
Most of all, he discovered love. A love that softened his manmade heart, that filled him with energy, that caused it to beat faster when the boy found himself near Rin, filling him with more energy, with a desire to make the cheerful blonde with her white bowtie even happier. Even more than that though was an underlying fear, a fear that this hope for eternity was a one-sided feeling on his part, a fear of learning what he assumed must have been the truth. So he hid away the love that was blossoming in his heart until finally the day of the new shipment of books arrived.
"Look!" Rin ran up to her friend, outstretched hands holding a pile of new books. "The bookstore finally got some new books for me to read!"
The boy simply smiled, watching as Rin excitedly sat down and picked the first book off her pile, opening it up to the first page with a contented look on her face. Just as she started to settle down on the swing, the boy suddenly got up, the swing-chains rattling behind him. Rin looked up at him, confused. "Are you going somewhere?"
The boy simply smiled at her, a hint of sadness tainting that smile, as he replied, "Now that you have more books to read, I assumed you don't have a need to come talk to me anymore so I thought I'd excuse myself."
Rin stared at the boy, then stared at her kitty and finally down at her book. And then she chucked her book at him.
Completely unfazed by her sudden attack, the boy caught the book in his hands before it could fall to the floor, looking over at Rin with a confused look on his face. He started, "I'm sorry, I don't understand what this—"
"Of course you don't because you're a big idiot!" Rin huffed, crossing her arms as she got up, puffing her cheeks out as she let out a snort through her nose. "You think I'd abandon you for a pile of books?"
"I'm afraid I don't understand," the boy simply replied, his eyes blinking rapidly as he tried to process the point behind Rin's words. "My memory says you said we were only hanging out for a week."
"Well, go tell your memory that agreements and promises and all that crap can be changed!" Rin shouted just as her kitty padded over to the boy and started pushing him back towards Rin with some unknown force. She lightly hit the boy's chest when he finally came to a stop before Rin, grumbling, "Seriously, now I feel stupid for thinking both of us enjoyed hanging out together."
"That's not true!" the boy said, his voice coming out stronger than he'd expected. He looked down quickly, a little embarrassed by his sudden, unexpected outburst, mumbling the rest of his response in a much quieter tone. "I really enjoyed hanging out with you last week too."
"Then why did you think I wouldn't want to hang out with you just because I had some more books to read?"
"My memory tells me that you really like reading books."
Hearing his words, Rin let out a long sigh, shaking her head. She took in another deep breath, a hint of red appearing in her cheeks as she poked the boy's head and said, "Ok, so I do like books. A lot. But I like you too! I like you a lot more than books so keep hanging out with me!"
The boy stared long and hard at the blush on Rin's face, her embarrassed yet determined expression burning themselves into his memory. He let a smile etch itself across his face before reaching out and pulling Rin into a tight hug, burying his face into her shoulder as he felt her heart pound with his own, the feelings he'd been trying to lock up finally spilling out.
"Don't worry, Rin. I'm never going to let you go."
Len had his face buried in his hands by the time he finished reading Miku's story.
"What?" Miku demanded.
Len let out a groan. "This is worse than you portraying Rin as an evil Pocky throwing tyrant."
"I'm not portraying her as anything!" Miku shot back. "It's just a protagonist who has Rin's name, okay? Plus she's super nice in this one, isn't she?"
"Yeah, yeah," Len sighed, ducking just in time to avoid the newspaper roll Miku had attempted to hit him with. "This story is totally not similar to how those two actually became a couple or anything like that."
Miku paused midway through her second swipe at Len, unable to counter Len's accusation. She cleared her throat and straightened up, crossing her arms. "I—I only borrowed a little bit of that," Miku weakly argued back, looking away from Len's accusing stare.
"More like a lot," Len muttered under his breath. He leaned back in the seat and let out a long, defeated sigh. "But I guess the story's not too bad if I pretend that this has nothing to do with Rin. Though one thing."
"Yes?"
"It's sorta like that first story you wrote, don't you think?"
Miku pondered it for a moment before a frown appear on her face. "You're right for once," Miku grumbled, crossing her arms. It was sorta similar, with the whole idea of trading books for cookies and milk. Though Miku guessed it wasn't that bad since the purpose of the trade was pretty different. She'd just have to make sure to think of some more interesting story the next time.
"Well, it looks like you're going to take my advice for once even though I get the feeling you just insulted me," Len sighed, before another thought hit him. "Also, what were you trying to accomplish by never mentioning who the name of this robot who's obviously Rin's fiancé?"
"It's suspenseful for the readers, isn't it?" Miku giggled, recovering immediately. "They'll all be dying to know just who the guy is!"
"The only reader is me," Len pointed out. "And it's not suspenseful because I know who Rin's marrying."
"Not you," Miku said. "The other readers."
"Huh?" Len stared at her with a blank look. "What other readers?"
"You know, the readers," Miku simply snickered back without explaining.
After squinting his eyes at Miku out of confusion, Len just shrugged and shook his head. "Whatever," he sighed, leaning back in the chair. "The name of this robot fiancé doesn't matter much anyways, since the Rin in your story isn't really Rin, and the name doesn't matter as much as to how you portrayed the robot."
"Exactly," Miku giggled. "I'm leaving it to the reader to guess who they want Rin to get married to."
"Can you stop with all this reader crap?" Len groaned. "It's like you're suggesting that someone out there knows Rin and the people she's connected to."
"There could be someone out there like that. You never know," Miku grinned.
Len stared at his girlfriend with a disapproving look. Suddenly he got up and steered Miku back into her seat. Before she could ask him what was wrong, Len declared, "You know what? I think you should give fake Rin's robot fiancé a name after all. In fact, use Rin's fiancé's name."
"What? Why?" Miku complained.
"No reason," Len said, giving Miku a firm pat on the shoulder. "Just do it."
Miku sighed as Len abruptly turned and went off into the kitchen with Cookie in his arms, muttering about his disbelief that Rin was actually getting married. She snuck a glance behind her. There was a sound of a cabinet opening from the open door before the familiar dull thud of a cat food can hitting the table reached her ears, but otherwise, Len didn't seem like he was coming back anytime soon to check on her.
Maybe she was too excited about the prospect of Rin getting married, or maybe she was still in disbelief that Rin was getting married to him of all people, but for once, Miku couldn't help herself. As much as Len's grumpy comments could get on her nerves, it was always fun to mess with Len once in a while.
And so, she began to type.
The name of the robot who stole Rin's heart was …
[Bzzt—Error: System Malfunction. Unauthorized attempt to access data has been detected. Emergency Protocol 001 activated. System shutting down. Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep~]
A/N: Am I evil? Am I? AM I? (Of course I am. Why else would the Sorting Hat put me in Slytherin?)
Anyways, I'm sorry it took me so long to get around to writing this. And I'm sorry for the quality. My writing seems to have gotten rusty, but hopefully it'll get better. I might update soon to make up for … uh … trolling everyone (is that what this is called?) so that might happen.
And this is perhaps a bit late to ask, but please tell me if maybe there's a story you want to see as an actual detailed, full length story because writing more stuff will hopefully get me back into the habit of writing itself (and it's totally not like I want to write a story about this or anything…*shutupme*).
Thanks for reading and for putting up with me!